Minority development:
The rural misconception

The Union ministry for minority affairs points out to the Planning Commission the folly of concentrating its attention and resources on minorities in the rural areas at the expense of a massive urban population, and asks for an immediate course correction

By Shahid Faridi

Urban India is fast becoming a hunting ground for Islamic militants, and if this needs to be addressed, the government must immediately refocus its minority development programme towards Muslims living in urban India. This is the essence of an "SOS message" sent by the Ministry for Minority Affairs to the Planning Commission, which is currently preparing the 11th Five Year Plan (FYP).

The note cites the 2001 Census to highlight the rapidly changing demography of urban India. Consider this: in seven states and four Union Territories, more than 50 per cent of Muslims live in urban areas.

Until now, most development schemes and plans have been made with the focus clearly being poor Muslims living in remote villages of the country. However, an increasingly large number of Muslims are now living in urban India, and often in appalling conditions of housing, health, and sanitation, and many not having proper means of livelihood. Not just from the social justice point of view but also from the security concerns, the government needs to refocus its policies to help ameliorate the plight of urban Muslims, says the ministry for minority welfare.

The change should come fast if the country has to prevent a repeat of incidents like the blasts in a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra, the ministry says in its note. The sleepy town of Malegaon briefly shot into world infamy last year when blasts punctured the silence of an afternoon prayer in a mosque packed with worshippers.

Security agencies have blamed Pakistan-based Islamic militants for planning the attack and using local Muslims to carry them out. In the serial train blasts in Mumbai in 2006, too, security agencies have said that local Muslim youth are the prime suspects among those who planted the bombs. Similar theories are being floated in the initial investigations into the recent Samjhauta Express blasts.

"The minorities not only have a relatively higher urban population (and very often in urban slums), the development process fails to address their basic needs of housing, sanitation, education, health and employment," the ministry’s note says. "These pockets of deprivation and discontent are happy hunting grounds for disgruntled elements from both within and (beyond) the borders of India. These areas need urgent attention even if it means diversion of some resources to the development of these areas …The approach has to be different in the next Plan," it adds.

Another issue brought forward by the ministry is that of Muslims living in the border areas. For instance, the Terai region along the border with Nepal has often been cited as a favourite route used by Islamic militants to enter the country with the help of local Muslims living on the notoriously porous border itself. Many of the border and coastal districts are “backward in terms of indices like literacy, work participation, electricity and drinking water," the note says.

"The deprivation and discontent in these areas do not help the national cause. The solution lies in aggressive development of these areas to reduce their vulnerability," it adds. To sum up, the ministry says, much higher priority be accorded in the 11 th FYP to the improvement of basic amenities—housing, education, health, and employment—in cities and towns with a substantial minority population.

Some, if not all, backward minority concentration districts along the borders may be given special attention in terms of their development needs "to ensure palpable results within the next two years".
And, finally, the note says, a dedicated inter-ministerial task force should be set up to monitor these schemes.